Pesticides in the Air, Kids at Risk (2010)

Pesticides in the Air, Kids at Risk (2010)
Producer, Earthjustice

[Note: United Farm Workers of America's (UFW) partner, Earthjustice, a non-profit public interest law firm, released the following advocacy video in support of their efforts to petition the Environmental Protection Agency to address the issue of pesticide drift exposure in farming communities.]

Each year, nearly a billion pounds of pesticides are sprayed in fields and orchards across the country. As the families who live nearby can tell you: those pesticides don't always stay in the fields and orchards where they're sprayed. For well over a decade, Earthjustice has been battling in the courts to curtail the use of dangerous pesticides that poison workers and their families. While we have succeeded in having some nasty pesticides banned, we are still fighting over a dozen others to keep people from being poisoned where they live, play, or work.

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Many of our cases are trying to protect people from the very pesticides that caused these poisonings. Most recently, Earthjustice has partnered with farmworker and public health groups around the country in an effort to gain federal protections from pesticide drift for agricultural communities nationwide. Earthjustice attorneys filed a petition in October 2009 asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set safety standards protecting children who grow up near farms from the harmful effects of pesticide drift -- the toxic spray or vapor that travels from treated fields. The petition also asks the agency to immediately adopt no-spray buffer zones around homes, schools, parks and daycare centers for the most dangerous and drift-prone pesticides.

In response to the petition, the EPA opened up the group's petition for public comment. While a promising sign, EPA has not yet committed to put the necessary protections in place. Now comes the hard work of making sure that decision-makers hear that children need and deserve immediate protection from poisons in the air where they live, play, and go to school. They'll surely be getting an earful from the pesticide industry telling them to keep the status quo. Industry interests have already started putting the pressure on EPA.

But as powerful as these industry groups may be, they'll be hard-pressed to dull the spirits of the brave rural residents fighting to protect the children in their communities from pesticides. Or to outnumber the growing ranks of people around the country rallying in support of these safety measures. Join them today!